World Chefs: Oringer's travels reflected in restaurants

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Ken Oringer owns five restaurants in Boston and each serves a different type of cuisine, ranging from his flagship Clio with high-end French food to recently opened Coppa and its casual Italian fares.

The 45-year-old chef said the choice of foods reflects his experience working and traveling around the world.

He spoke to Reuters about the Boston's lively dining scene, his many restaurants and why he wants to cut down on travel.

Q: How would you compare Boston's dining scene with other U.S. cities like New York and San Francisco?

A: "I think Boston has come a long, long way. In the last five years the city has made it a whole lot easier for some of the smaller operators to open some really funky mom-and-pop places. There are some really interesting places like Senegalese, Tibetan, all sort of Asian, Polish. It's such a young, international city. It works to its advantage. The population is so small compared to New York, but there is a huge variety. Boston is pretty darn good and I would put it up against anybody."

Q: Each of your restaurants serves a different kind of cuisine. Why?

A: "With Clio, which is over 13 years old, I didn't want to become typecast for one type of food. When people had associated my name they had thought I was only into high-end, contemporary French cuisine. When I was looking at opening up other kinds of restaurants I would spend so much time traveling around the world and cooking around the world and obviously eating and loving all different kinds of cuisine. I was looking at the types of food I cook for friends, family and my staff."